Architecture PLB designed the 1,000-bed block which is a stone鈥檚 throw from Aldgate Station

The west facade of Architecture PLB's Aldgate proposals for Unite Students

The west facade of Architecture PLB's Aldgate proposals for Unite Students

View to the north of Architecture PLB's Aldgate proposals for Unite Students

Architecture PLB's Aldgate student housing poposals, seen from the east

The City-fringe site of Architecture PLB's student tower proposals

Source: Google Maps

Model of Architecture PLB's proposals for Aldgate student housing

Source: Model of Architecture PLB's proposals for Aldgate student housing

John Seifert Architects' 2007 office scheme for the site, at the junction of Middlesex Street and Whitechapel High Streeet

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Developer Unite Students is seeking planning permission for a 24-storey tower featuring more than 1,000 student beds at a key City fringe intersection.

The proposals, drawn up by Architecture PLB, would occupy a 0.23ha site at the corner of Middlesex Street and Whitechapel High Street, near to Aldgate Underground Station. It currently houses an electricity substation, which would be demolished but reprovided under the scheme.

PLB鈥檚 design would deliver 1,052 student bedrooms, of which around 100 would be studio apartments, in a block that steps up from 18 storeys at its north. The project site is a short distance south of Bennetts Associates鈥� 34-storey Nido Spitalfields student accommodation tower.

The application, lodged with Tower Hamlets council, also includes 2,462m2 of office floorspace, 441m2 of 鈥渋ncubator鈥� floorspace for start-up businesses, and a 228m2 unit for use as a shop or a cafe.

The site previously had consent for a 17-storey office block designed by John Seifert Architects, granted in 2007, before the global financial crisis.

Documents supporting PLB鈥檚 application said the proposals were presented as three, co-joined, rectilinear blocks with their long elevations orientated east-west as part of an acceptance that the building鈥檚 form and massing needed to be broken down.

鈥淭hroughout the pre-application process officers have been supportive of the principal [sic] of the tall building on the site, whilst emphasising the acceptability of the proposed scale and massing was dependent upon the design response and architectural articulation,鈥� they said.

They added that Tower Hamlets鈥� design and conservation advisory panel had been given a pre-application presentation on the proposals in April and had been 鈥渟atisfied鈥� with the proposed massing of the scheme, but suggested 鈥渁dditional variation鈥� across the elevational treatments.

The authority has yet to set a target determination date for the proposals.

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